Long Luna Update, Behavior Thoughts / Opinions?

[flappybird]

Hey all,

Luna is the 10 year old, blue-head Pionus that I adopted a little over three months ago. She's doing great, generally. A few things are worrying me, though, and I just wanted to see if anyone had any ideas / comments.

It seems like her feathers aren't as bright as they were when we got her, her blue head feathers, specifically. Her wings still seem pretty bright, and her tail feathers have developed a beautiful, iridescent blue that doesn't seem like it was there before. But if I compare pictures of her when we first got her to pictures now, her head is significantly more dull in color, despite the fact that she has been growing a lot of new feathers and her previously totally bare cheeks grew back in as well.

A little bit of internet research has me thinking maybe it's not enough sunlight. Her cage location previously was in view of a window but not close to it, and it's darker than it probably should be most of the day. I resolved this issue a week and a half ago by moving the cage right next to a huge window that gets a lot of sunlight during the day. It's a bit mottled due to trees outside, so she has some shady spots, but definitely more direct sunlight. I also take her outside during sunny hours when I get the chance.

The other cause I guess could be nutrition but I really feel like I'm feeding her a good variety of foods that have required vitamins. Her current batch of chop/gloop which she gets twice a day has a wild rice blend, a 7 grain blend, a mix of different lentils, carrots, peppers, ginger, red chard, quinoa, squash, sweet potato, anise seeds, millet, sesame seeds, hemp seeds, ground flaxseed, oats, broccoli, parsnips, and some other stuff I can't think of at the moment. I change this mix slightly every time I make it. I've made 4 different batches since I've had her.

I've also been supplementing with Roudybush pellets, to make sure she's getting whatever I'm missing, and fresh sprouts (a parrot friendly seed and grain mix I got, plus mung beans and black eyed peas, both of which she really likes). I also recently bought her some Nutriberries for the first time, because I know she used to get some at her last home. I've been putting those in some foraging toys so she can pick at them throughout the day.

Another issue with her feathers, and this has been consistent since I got her, they never seem as clean as they should. They separate a lot, especially the ones on her back, and she just looks like she needs more shower, but she seems to hate showers. She never wants anything to do with water, and I've only seen 2-3 willing showers since I got her. The first one was when we took her up to North Carolina and I guess the air was dryer there, because she was preening a lot more than often and when I took her into the shower she practically dived towards the water. Since that and one time at home (here in Florida), she has not wanted to, and I feel like she really needs to. When she does get wet, she doesn't spend her drying time preening, which, correct me if I'm wrong, seems really strange. She takes FOREVER to dry, and doesn't take advantage of the time to rearrange her previously dirty looking feathers. She just sits still a lot and shakes now and then.

As I type this, it's been almost three hours since I made her shower, and most of her is dry except for the middle of her back where I think her worst feathers (except for under her wings) are still damp. The feathers and skin under her wings are a very rare sight. She doesn't stretch out her wings often, and when she does stretch, it's a weird backwards sort of stretch, one wing at a time. She has room to stretch both her wings all the way, especially when she's on top of the cage, but she never ever does. I feel like she's missing a lot of feathers under her wings, usually I see more down than green, and I can see some of her skin at the wing joint too.

As for preening habits, they seem to happen mostly in her night cage between putting her to bed and waking up in the morning, and in the morning on my bedroom windowsill when she's awake but I'm still hanging out in bed. Sometimes, if I'm home in the afternoon and sitting still with her on my shoulder, she'll preen there too. She's a real dandruffy mess, most days, and I help her with pin feathers when she lets me.

She eats in the morning and evening with some foraging snacks throughout the day.
Some things I've noticed: she doesn't really like eating when I'm not around, so I try to have her eat most of her breakfast next to me in the kitchen while I get ready for the day. It's like she feels nervous or threatened when I'm not around to watch. She also still really likes sitting by windows, but seems to be a little more nervous when she does. She insists on being on windowsills, but then proceeds to make her warning noises that she makes when something scares her or looks scary.

Another thing, is that she wipes her beak on perches a WHOLE LOT. Usually after eating, to clean it.. which is fine, except when shes hanging around with me in the house away from her cage, she's usually sitting on those portable shower perches which are sandy, and she wipes her beak on that a lot. Her shiny black beak is now a bit dull and sanded, and I wonder whether I should worry about that, and maybe vet-wrap the perch. I'm worried the top of her beak will get sanded into a ridge or something. Thoughts?

For a while now, she been sleeping in her travel cage in the second bedroom (so she can have dark and quiet). It seems like she REALLY likes her travel cage, and every night at the same time she starts chirping uncontrollably until I take her to "bed". Once she is in her cage, if I approach her with my hand she makes that Pionus wheezing sound. Except it's pretty loud and fast and she has only ever done it during these circumstances. We have a routine where I close the cage door and start to cover the rest of the cage, and she climbs down to the door, and I'll reach in through the mini door and scratch her head. She seems to really enjoy this, except she also wants to mouth/nip my fingers a lot too. She is also doing some of the wheezing during this time too.

I've noticed that she spends all night on the floor of that cage under the water dish for some reason, instead of on the perches in there. She has one rope perch, and a fat, wooden sleeping perch. But every morning, all the poop is under the dish in that one spot, and she usually runs up to her perch if I catch her early enough in the morning. I don't know whether any of this is a problem. When she's in her big cage during the day, she's never on the ground, always on perches. Does not have any trouble perching. She does move around with caution, which she's always done since I got her. Initially I thought it's because she used to live a in a smaller cage and she never moved around much. She moves around more these days, but I wonder how much age plays a part in her feather condition and how she climbs around. Her grip is not strong. Earlier she almost fell of the table trying to step onto my hand which was on the edge of the table, almost like she wasn't even looking.

Anyways, that's about it. A list of the things that cause me a slight bit of concern day to day, but nothing seems actually bad or terribly wrong. I don't know when she'll get her next vet visit, but I think I've resolved to try someone else next time.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Wolf]

It would appear that the diet is adequate and moving her to where she can get better light should be a good thing as well. Still there is something that is not quite right. It could be a low grade infection or perhaps the balance of vitamins and minerals is off, but I don't know. I really thing that you need to take your bird to a good avian vet for a check up and discuss these thing with him.
It is normal for many birds to eat better when they get to eat with you as eating and the sharing of food is a bonding behavior as well as a social event for them and they would normally eat with their entire flock, so sharing mealtimes with them is a good thing to do. You do not mention how much time you spend interacting with your bird or how much time out of cage that she has, both of these are also very important to your birds wellbeing, with a minimum of 4 hours daily being a generally accepted norm for them.
Some birds do not like showers or misting so much, some prefer to have a faucet turned on gently so that they can move in and out of the water stream at will sort of like a small waterfall and others prefer using a dish to bathe in. My Grey will try to bathe in her water dish which is so small that she can only get her feet wet and when she does this I mist her and she likes it at these times. I recently got her a 30 ounce water dish and put it in her cage so hopefully she will try to bathe in it instead of the small one that fits the cages holder.
I would not be concerned about her wiping her beak especially after eating as this is normal behavior. I wonder if she might have mites, if this is a factor she needs to see a vet to remedy this as the over the counter stuff is bad for your bird and is not really effective either. In any case I really think that you need to see a vet and rule out any medical possibilities first.

[flappybird]

I've tried the faucet and having her near it, and I've tried putting a wide, shallow bathing dish in her cage which she largely ignored.

As for her out of cage time, Luna's cage is open and she is free to come out any time either of us are home. On days where I work, she hangs out with me for about an hour to hour and a half in the morning, and then she stays with Michael until he leaves anytime between 11:30 or 2:30 depending on what class he has that day. So she has plenty time around us most days at least until late morning/ early afternoon. Then I come home in the evening and we hang out for another 1.5-2 hours until she demands to be put to bed. On my days off, I spend large portions of the day at home with her doing house chores or whatever else. Sometimes I'll take her with me on errands. The only days that she spends large portions alone are on Friday and Saturday when we both work and are gone all day. As I'm typing this, she's been in her cage with the door open or out of the cage since about 9am. It's almost 3 now.

As for interaction with her, she honestly does not want to do much. I pretty much do whatever she wants since she is so calm and not very demanding. Most of the time she's happy to hang out in her cage and chew on whatever treats are in there, and pay very very little attention to her toys. She doesn't play very much at all, and she's not a big cuddler.

If she wants me to pick her up she lets me know, and she'll either hang out on my shoulder or on the shower portable perch in the kitchen, or on the couch and windowsill. The only thing that she doesn't like is when I leave the room for more than a few seconds, but as long as she can see me, she's usually really quiet and content it seems. We live in a really small house, so if we're home, she's involved. Occasionally, we will go over her "upside down" trick, which is really just letting me hold her upside down by her feet (she didn't used to like that, now it's fine) and progressing onto palming her back, or doing some harness work.

She is not flighted yet, I haven't clipped her since I got her, and her wing feathers are still growing out. My presumption is that she's been clipped her whole life. The only times she tries to fly are when she is spooked, and it's very rare. I honestly don't know that she would know what to do even after her wing feathers do grow out. And without being able to target her to specific places, I don't know how I'll get her used to flying when the time comes.

[Wolf]

If you want to help her gain enough muscle to even try flying then you must get her to flapping her wings, so you might try a fast walk in the house or maybe a slow run, whatever speed you need to get her to flap her wings.
You really need to get her to the vets as there is definitely something wrong with a bird that will not preen its feathers. While this may not qualify as an emergency, I don't believe that you should put it off either, I would get an appointment as soon as possible.

[flappybird]

You misunderstood me, she does preen her feathers, frequently in the morning and sometime during the night between when I put her away for sleep and get her out in the morning. I'm sure she also preens when I'm not at home. What I meant to say is that I find it strange that she doesn't preen after showers/ getting wet. She just sits there looking upset that she got wet in the first place.

Sometimes I have her perch on my hand and squat quickly to the floor to make her use her wings for balance. I like to think it might be a fun game one day but mostly I think this just scares her so I quit doing it. Sometimes when she's really really eager to get somewhere, for example when I bring her to my bedroom in the morning, she twitches her wings half-open and chirps a whole bunch, at which time I will try to launch her towards the bed; somewhere she can glide and land softly.

[Wolf]

Yes, I did misunderstand about the preening and after reading about her feather condition on her back and especially under her wings, I thought of mites, but was really not happy with that either. Normally when reading of feather conditions such as you described, I normally think of over preening, barbering and/ or plucking as these are usually the cause for this type of feather conditions. I then start looking for the possible causes for these actions such as not getting enough attention, mild depression as well as soy products in the food as some birds have an allergic reaction to soy that causes them to scratch or pluck their feather and even self mutilate in some instances.
At this point I can't think of any one thing that seta off any alarms in my mind, but I do get the overall impression that there is something not quite right, but nothing that I can point to.
I know that Pionus are often describes as being somewhat of a perch potato, but...., I don't know maybe it is just me or maybe she is still a little depressed as you really haven't had her all that long.

[Pajarita]

You mention the ingredients of your chop or gloop (which one is it? are the grains cooked, soaked or added dry?) but you don't give the proportions so it could be fine or it could be too high in protein... and, if I were you, I would replace the red Swiss Chard with broccoli because it has a very high content of oxalates (my birds only get it once every 10 or 15 days). I would also eliminate the anise seeds, they are tasty but they are 'hot' in the stomach. I would replace the sandy perches with normal perches (you don't really want her always standing on sand paper or wiping her beak on it, it's too rough!). I don't feed my parrots parsnips... it's not that they are bad because they are not but they are super high in potassium and, if you look at the elements of their natural diets, there aren't that many source of high potassium in them and, as my birds get beans in their gloop and bananas once a week, I think this gives them more than enough. High potassium affects the balance of calcium, sodium and magnesium in the body which must be maintained in a good balance and high potassium affects skeletal as well as the heart muscles so I am very careful not to give too much of any of them.

[flappybird]

Wolf - she is a bit of a perch potato.

On her first visit to the vet the second week I had her he said that she was missing a lot of overall feathers, not like plucking, because it wasn't obvious, but more like a heavy molt or something. It does seems like she's been going through a molt, because for the past month or two she had a lot of new feathers on her head coming through. I haven't seen as many lately.

I know that the last time she plucked was about three years ago when her last owner acquired her. She hasn't plucked since, supposedly. I've certainly haven't seen any signs of plucking. The only thing she sheds a lot is a whole bunch of keratin sheath powder.

On to food...

Honestly, the way you guys describe gloop and the way I've seen/read chop described sounds like almost the same thing, so maybe I'll just start calling it "batch of parrot food" haha. Also, I don't put any fruit in my batches, fruits are occasionally added as treats or toppings, therefore the batch that I mix has good consistency, nothing is watery or too mushy.

The wild rice and lentil mix in her last batch was cooked. When I used sweet potatoes and squash the time before, I steamed them first. The 7 grain cereal I added dry this time (cooked, last time) to help balance out consistency.
What is the preferred method for feeding a grain mix? The one I'm using at the moment is Bob's Red Mill 7 grain cereal.

As for proportions, the ratio of veggies is much much higher than anything else I add to the mix. I would estimate about 1/4 cup total of whatever blend of legume proteins I pick per batch, and maybe another 1/8 cup of the wild rice mix, plus all the veggies that got chopped up in the processor. That last batch lasted me about three weeks, with twice a day feedings, each the size of a standard, trapezoidal ice cube. The first batch I made when I got her was way too much, so I've been trying to make smaller batches that way her food is more varied overall. I supplement these twice a day feedings with very small amounts of Higgins Safflower Gold (usually in foraging cups or something), and other chunks of veggies/fruits.

I use different greens for every batch, this was the first time I used red chard. Last two times I used broccoli and kale. I'm making another batch tonight and I will be using spinach as well as brocolli. When I use parsnips and/or ginger it's in very small amounts. She also doesn't get that much banana as it's one of the foods that seems to make her regurgitate more often. When she does get a bit, she gets a couple pieces the size of a kidney bean and that's it, or I let her take a few bites from mine.

The regurgitation, for anyone who's wondering, has significantly decreased. Happening more at normal intervals, I'd say. Sometimes she gets really overexcited, like when I take her for rides in the car or when I've been with her for most of two days straight, and she goes through a little regurgitation episode where she is actually dropping food on me. I'm going to assume she's just being affectionate.

Anise seeds were probably somewhere around a 1/2 tsp for the entire batch. Just something to add a pop of flavor here and there, but I can just not add those if that's better. I currently have a jar with a mix of dried nettle leaf, bee pollen, and anise seeds, and that's what I added a few tablespoons of to the batch.

She doesn't have any sandy perches in her cage. The only sandy perch I have is the "shower perch" that I use to have her hang out either in the shower, kitchen, or living room window. I was wondering if I should wrap it and just eliminate that all together... or maybe just wrap one when I get a second (she loves it, so I think I need another to stop moving the only one I have around).

Hopefully this gives everyone a better picture of her situation.

[Wolf]

the difference between chop and gloop is that gloop is a cooked food while chop is not cooked. My gloop is 40% cooked whole grains, 40% cooked mixed vegetables and 20% cooked white beans and lentils. I also think that one needs to do specific research on the individual diets of their parrots, for instance, The World Parrot Trust recommends that your Blue Headed Pionus should have about 30% of her diet as fruit. Since I feed my birds gloop for breakfast along with fresh produce consisting of raw fruits, vegetable and leafy greens the fresh raw produce is where I tend to make the adjustments for more fruit or more vegetables in their diets. This is not to say that this is how you should do it, it is just the way that works for me.
If this is a molting thing then it suggests to me that your bird in not on a natural solar light schedule which begins before the bird wakes with the twilight period that becomes the dawn and runs throughout the daylight hours through the twilight period that we call dusk on until full dark when the bird should be fast asleep. This is important as it is the two twilight periods that work together to adjust and tune the birds internal biological clock. This biological clock controls the timing for the bird to cycle into and out of breeding condition as well as when to begin its molting. If the internal clock is not in tune with the seasons then the bird is often hormonal all year long as well as prone to molting at any time of the year. The molt can be just a few feathers here and there all year long or it can be abnormally hard such as you are describing.
I must admit that Pajarita is much more experienced than I am and with a much larger variety of birds than I.

[flappybird]

Silly question that I could just google but rather ask you guys...What time of year do parrots usually molt? Or does that depend on species?